Times of Trenton Letters to the Editor - May 16

The Republicans continue to rail against President Barack Obama’s health-care reform bill, but I believe they might sell their own mothers to prevent the government from fulfilling its responsibility to promote the welfare of the public. A reasonable discussion and debate about health care, or any other issue of government policy, is not possible as long as there is a single Republican holding public office.

-- Mark A. Friesel,
Ewing

Ravi’s choices have consequences

If Dharun Ravi’s supporters get what they want on Monday, when he is to be sentenced (“Protesters rally, seek no jail time for Ravi,” May 15), my faith in the justice system will be shaken, unless he offers to reimburse the state for every single cent spent on prosecuting this case.

Mr. Ravi, who was convicted last month “of 15 criminal counts, including ... bias intimidation, for using his webcam to view a brief live clip of his roommate kissing another man,” was offered a plea deal that would have given him exactly what he is now fighting for, and turned it down. The courts did not put him in this position. His choice did. The simple truth that choices have consequences seems to be a lesson hard-learned by Mr. Ravi.

-- Karen Flicker,
Hopewell Township

Severe sentence for Ravi serves no one

A profound sense of injustice has been growing in the gay community of this state and elsewhere regarding the conviction of Dharun Ravi and the possibly draconian sentence he faces as a result of what was intended as a minor college prank (“Protesters rally, seek no jail time for Ravi,” May 15).

Mr. Ravi secretly watched his roommate having intimate relations with another man and allowed a small number of friends to watch also. Certainly, this was improper, in bad taste and offensive. However, no substantive evidence has been produced to show it was homophobic. Nonetheless, Mr. Ravi has been tarred with that brush by a prosecution clearly concerned only with winning the case — a prosecution devoid of any sense of reasonableness or common sense.

Let not this prosecution claim to be protecting the LGBT community. We are not served by inflicting outrageously disproportionate punishment on a student for what was meant to be a silly joke, nor is our cause advanced by the destruction of what was the promising life of an otherwise blameless youth.

The fact that the roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide is a tragedy that is not repaired by such destruction, nor can it be repaired at all. Further, it is highly improbable that Mr. Ravi’s actions caused the suicide. Such an act is normally the result of a long history of issues about which we, the public, are uninformed.

It is to be hoped that, in passing sentence, the court will heed the opinion of most LGBT publications (including New Jersey’s own Out In Jersey magazine) and numerous independent commentators and will impose a non-custodial sentence of community service.

-- Tobias Grace,
Trenton
The writer is editor of Out in Jersey magazine.

A healthy society allows for family planning

In the tornado of political rhetoric, family planning services and, in particular, Planned Parenthood, has become a favorite target. It is a target because of ignorance and misunderstanding. The fact is that some employers want to deny choices to women and families when that denial undermines a mother’s goal of healthy, wanted and well-cared-for children. The denial is a remnant of the church’s Middle Ages intrusion into the private lives of individuals. The intrusion of church doctrine into the argument presupposed that freedom of religion does not reside with a person but in the faith institution. In reality, individuals choose the values they take from those faith institutions, and always have.

Family planning services, and, in particular, Planned Parenthood, offer a comprehensive and low-cost service to many who do not have or cannot afford a private physician’s care. Included in its services are a variety of tests and screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and general reproductive health. For many persons, it is their first contact with medical services other than immunization. Planned Parenthood helps people make difficult choices, not by coercion but through education. Planned Parenthood has become a critical provider of services because there is a need for them. It often assures that families and their children have the best opportunities for a healthy future. For those who no longer wish to have children, tubal ligation and vasectomy become realistic options.

The modest costs of agencies such as Planned Parenthood are far less than the financial burden on both society and families that do not have that option. Family planning is needed as a component of good health care that is not limited by the constraints of institutions of faith.

-- Harold E. Fleming,
Trenton

Council has a duty to answer to its citizens

The Times ran “Hamilton council introduces budget with 2-cent tax-rate hike” (May 3), which states that our taxes will go up and then goes into the reasons for the increase, which include gas prices, health benefits and, of course, the state raiding the energy tax receipts, according to township Business Administrator John Ricci.

No politician is going to include corruption, ineptitude and ignorance in the list of costs, yet these are always present.

This is precisely why there is an Open Public Records Act. Even though the process is made difficult, any citizen can pay the fee and request any public document.

What really caused me to write this letter was the attitude from the Hamilton governing body (Business Administrator Ricci and Councilman Dennis Pone) to resident Dan Keelan during the May 1 meeting.

When Mr. Keelan asked for a line-item listing as to where the $5.7 million beyond mandated costs was being spent, he was told by township Business Administrator John Ricci, “I’m not going to do it. I don’t have the time or inclination to do that.” And Councilman Dennis Pone, a politician, accused Mr. Keelan of being political! Who do they think they are?

In this climate where the “money train” to Atlantic City and million-dollar insurance commissions are normal, I hope that more interested citizens will be willing to challenge the powers that be. It’s the only way we can hope to keep our democracy fit.

-- Corky Danch,
Hamilton

Eat your way to better health

The number of Americans considered obese is expected to rise from the current 34 percent of the population to 42 percent by the year 2030, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Diabetes, kidney failure, heart disease and other obesity-related ailments account for countless premature deaths and as much as 18 percent of the $2.6 trillion national cost of medical care.

The leading causes of obesity are consumption of fat-laden meat and dairy products and lack of exercise. This is particularly critical during childhood years, when lifestyle habits become lifelong addictions.

A five-year Oxford University study of 22,000 people, published in the International Journal of Obesity in 2006, found that those on a vegetarian or vegan diet gained the least weight. A review of 87 studies in Nutrition Reviews concluded that a vegetarian diet is highly effective for weight loss.

The time has come to replace meat and dairy products in our diet with wholesome grains, vegetables and fruits and to undertake a regular exercise program. Parents should insist on healthy school lunch choices and set a good example at their own dinner table.